JoshuaLndmd

Thank you everyone for your feedback. I appreciate everyone's input, this is really helpful. I think we got our answer.

Best of luck to everyone still in the process of filing!

@Redro We value the "ceremonial" wedding more than the paper/legal aspect which is why we would consider the ceremony (without the legal necessarily) to be our "real" wedding. Just to be clear we would want to do the paper/legal aspect upon approval of the K1 and a small ceremony with family on a set date that might potentially fall before the approval date.  But I understand that any record of a ceremony might affect our visa process.

No need to get upset SalishSea, I appreciate your concern but I've done my fair share of reading. I was simply asking because I couldn't find any stories like you say VisaJourney is full of, please feel free to share links to some if you can find any, I couldn't myself.

Best

We got engaged recently and our family (that we want present at our wedding) comes from three different countries which is why our timeline to get married is for next year to plan ahead, the timeline for the spousal visa would thus take a lot more time than simply waiting for our current k1 petition to be approved.

Much appreciated 

Thank you so much for your quick response on this! So even if we have a ceremony with no marriage license signing and no legal documentation you would think that it might still be risky if the government can somehow find a record of our ceremony? Would they go as far as look for a record of such ceremony with no legal documents supporting that event?

Hi all,

My fiancée (Colombia) and I (USA) are considering getting married ceremonially and setting a date in August, 2024. Has anyone tried this and will this affect our ongoing K1 visa petition? Should we consider doing this in the US on her tourist visa and then come back to Colombia while we wait for approval if we haven't received it by then or would it be better to simply do it in Colombia and finish the legal aspect in the US upon approval?

Thanks everyone!